


Hit and Run

by herooflegend



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 02:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18436844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herooflegend/pseuds/herooflegend
Summary: Arij and her fireteam decide to leave the Sol System. Things go great for a while, and then they don't.





	Hit and Run

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how long I want/anticipate this to be and quite frankly I'm scared.

 

It begins on a Saturday.  Of course, “day” is a relative term in outer space and weeks are a social construct irrelevant to the everyday life of most Guardians, but this is the kind of thing Arij Sento likes to keep track of, and this is her story, so it is a Saturday nonetheless.

A group of such Guardians are gathered together in a small bar in the Last City. It’s midday and they sit by a window. An abandoned Tower just outside looms overhead, blocking out any sun that would otherwise shine in on the booth. A human man with curious eyes and long, brown hair tied up in a messy bun grins and slams his drink down on the table. His teeth are unusually sharp. He declares to the rest of the bunch:

“We should leave the System.”

Directly across from him, another human still dressed in heavy Titan armor raises her eyebrows. Despite her expression and her sharp features, her grey eyes display an unusual softness. Arij sits pressed between her and an Exo with shimmering gold decals. She looks around the group before setting down her drink as well and saying, “Sure, sure.” She coughs a few times, pushes back a few short strands of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes, then continues. “But why? What’s got that on your mind?”

Arij turns to look out at the rest of the room as another Awoken is dragging a chair over to the booth. His hair is disheveled like he just took his helmet off after a fight, his robes have a few tears in them, and Arij notes that he looks stressed—Silran’s not usually late. Still, he turns the chair around with the back facing the group and plops down.

“Don’t know if you noticed, Elek. But there ain’t bars outside the Sol System. Least as far as I’ve seen,” he says.

Elek scoffs. “Who needs ‘em? I’ve got you guys. If you’re all in, that is.” His confident stature deflates a bit with those last few words. Arij notices but doesn’t mention it.

The still-helmeted Hunter next to Elek stops scrolling through a feed on their tablet to turn to their companion. “D’aww, I’ve always got your back, man. You know I’m down,” they chirp. It really does sound like chirping.

The Titan woman across the booth slides her drink towards the center of the table, a silent gesture that she’s done, though the drink isn’t even half-empty. She grabs her helmet from the window sill and says, “Don’t mean to interrupt this adorable love fest,” she gestures between Elek and his hunter companion, Bird, “but if you’ll recall, we aren’t just here to have a good time. And it seems our company has arrived.” Almost on cue, an explosion sounds off not far from the bar and the building shakes.

Arij smiles and lifts up her hand from the table. Light begins to shine out from between her fingers as she clenches her fist tight. Barely a moment later, she tosses a little glowing orb at her friend, which expands and encases her in overshields. “Lead the way, Heila.”

Heila knows her cue. Everyone else has already filed out from the seats and Heila slips out herself before taking a running start and vaulting over the table. She smashes through the window shoulder-first, into oncoming fire from a group of Fallen Vandals, while a disgruntled “hey!” comes from the bartender across the room. Arij strides over to him and tells him, “Safehouse is down the block, I’m sure you know the drill. Stay safe, man.” Just in case, she gives him a bit o’ Divine Protection, too.

The man starts to sprint towards the building’s front door, but he turns around at the last second to look at Arij. “Wait... You’re my neighbor. I thought you were, well... mortal.” Arij just smiles and summons her helmet and hand cannon. The man turns and goes and Arij joins the rest of her group outside the window.

Heila’s got a barrier up in the alley between the bar and the Tower and Elek’s kneeling just behind it picking off Captains one by one with his rifle while the legendary Titan herself is off leaping through the crowds, hitting anything in her way with both gun and body. There hasn’t been anything major since Twilight Gap, but small-scale attacks like this aren’t uncommon in the City—groups of Fallen, usually Devils, who think it’ll be easy to sneak into sectors abandoned since the Gap. Usually, they’re wrong, and more often than not they end up face to face with Arij and her fireteam. Arij knows they’re clever creatures and her fireteam won’t be able to predict the attacks forever, but she’ll let the group, and herself, enjoy the fun while it lasts.

Speaking of fun, Bird’s doing flips over Dregs, laughing and firing a stream of bullets from his SMG all the way. Arij smiles beneath her helmet and charges in the join them, throwing down a rift beneath her and the pile of bodies Bird has left behind. From this angle, she can see around the corner of the building into a street near the wall, where Silran is tossing one of his Vortex grenades into the fray and melting a Servitor like it’s nothing. King, the group’s resident Exo, is not far behind Heila, the two of them clearly facing off with the Fallen’s leader.

The rest of the group closes in on the Baron and Arij sprints further down the alleyway to join them. Time seems to pause for a moment as she takes in her surroundings. Elek has just fired a shot from his sniper, the bullet frozen in the air as it passes above Arij. Heila is mid-air, jumping to strike at the Baron with her fist. King is on the other side, illuminated by the light of the sun behind him reflecting off his armor. His dagger is just barely touching his fingertips as it leaves his grasp. Silran’s not far from Arij, void light condensing in his left hand and his favorite pulse rifle in the other. And Bird is right by her side, a blur of motion as they tumble along the ground. _Flipping the Bird_ they call it.

Arij revels in it all. During the Dark Ages, she avoided violence as much as she could and never used her Light to fight. But it has been a long time since then. Now, in this moment, Arij is happy. She feels united in something, with her friends by her side, the Traveler above her, and her enemy before her. It’s nice. It’s simple. The sun bears down on her and she draws from it, and from her love of this moment.

Time begins again. A searing bolt of fire comes from the sky and strikes the Baron on Arij’s command while Elek’s shot and Heila’s punch hit in unison. The Baron staggers back from the hits, right into King’s dagger. A ball of void flies from Silran’s hand and hangs in the air as it hits its target, burning through the Baron’s armor. The Fallen doesn’t have much left in him, and with a single final cut in the leg by Bird’s arcblade, he topples forward and falls directly on top of Heila.

From the back, Elek gives a triumphant shout as Arij starts to help Heila out from beneath the massive corpse. Arij knows she doesn’t need it, but it’s a nice gesture nonetheless. Silran is panting as he takes off his helmet at wipes sweat from his brow. King and Bird high five.

The group spends the rest of the afternoon cleaning up their mess and celebrating their victory. When Arij goes back to her home that night, only a few neighborhoods away, she begins to pack.


End file.
